From Small Groups to Supercities: The Energy that Fuelled Human Transition
Simon L’Allier
How do we explain that some human groups contain about a hundred individuals, while some cities may be filled with 33 million people? In other primate groups, increases in group size lead to growing competition over food resources and larger energy expenditures by each group member. So how do the concepts of energy and ecology apply to human populations, and what have we done as a species to make such large cities possible?
About the Presenter
Simon is currently at York University for his MSc in Biology, where he focuses on the primate endocrinology in connection to dispersal behaviour. His research involves male vervet monkeys at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. He is also working with collaborators at McGill University to develop a model for the evolution of human social organization through the perspective of energy use.
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